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Thursday, May 24, 2012

After graduating from OU two weeks ago (even though it still seems like yesterday), I thought it would be fun to reminisce on my college years and come up with some words of wisdom to pass on to future and current college hopefuls. So here are a few pieces of advice:

Get involved. College is one of the best times of your life. But you won’t enjoy it at all unless you get involved and make friends on campus. I know it’s not fun to walk into an event where you don’t know anyone, but you have to start somewhere. Odds are, those people you meet will end up being your best friends.

Choose your friends wisely. Trust me on this one, your friends will have a huge impact on how much you enjoy college. So make lots of them. But they will also have a huge impact on the person that you become. So make sure that they are people you want to be influenced by.

Don’t try to plan everything. Spur-of-the-moment road trips and last minute nights out dancing are part of what makes college memorable. Don’t be so stuck to a schedule or plan that you can’t make time for spontaneous fun.

Your reputation is important. You are lying to yourself if you claim that you don’t care what other people think of you. Some people might care less than others, but nobody wants to be viewed poorly by others. Someday, those students sitting next to you will be bosses and co-workers, so think twice about how you act. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be yourself. In fact, I would say it means quite the opposite. Be yourself, treat others with respect and your reputation will take care of itself.

Study abroad. After college, things like jobs, pets, and families make travel more difficult and exponentially more expensive. So take advantage of study abroad opportunities. Can it be stressful and expensive? Yes. But the memories you gain and the places you see make it completely worth it.

Choose a major that you enjoy. Sure it’s important to be able to get a job after college, but if you choose a major you hate just so you can get a job later, it will make your college experience miserable.

Don’t use up all your electives as a freshman and sophomore. Once you become a senior, you will see the value in this piece of advice. Those courses may look fun, but if you use up all your electives early, your senior year will be packed with upper level requirements that are time consuming and stressful. Save some elective hours to take with your capstone as a senior and I promise you will enjoy your last months of college so much more.

Get an on campus job (if you can). I can’t tell you how much this helped me through college. Having a job that I could walk to after my classes helped my schedule be so much less stressful. Plus, campus jobs are typically more understanding when you need time off for big projects.

Stay out of drama. You can usually tell which people are prone to gossiping and starting drama. Word to the wise: stay away from them. College students can be just as bad as high schoolers when it comes to “he said, she said” fights and rumors. Don’t waste your time on people who get involved in that or you’ll end up in the middle of it with them.

Don’t rush through college. Sure graduating early can save some money, but it won’t be worth it. College is the most fun and free time of your life and you only get it for so long. So don’t waste it by trying to get done with it. Once you are in the real world, you will wish you had that time back.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Since the NBA playoffs are in full swing, I decided it would be fitting for me to dedicate this blog to my still young fan-ship of the OKC Thunder.

Let me start out by being honest. Before the Sonics moved to OKC in 2008, my viewing of NBA games was limited to say the least. I was a 90s child through and through, and often spent evenings on the couch with Dad watching Michael Jordan in his glory days with the Chicago Bulls.

But as a five-year-old, I knew (and cared) little about what was actually going on in the game. I simply loved MJ and thought anything that he did was cool. Which it was, duh. But with no NBA team in my home state, I saw no reason to be a real fan of any NBA team.

Now to get to the point of this blog post—why I love the OKC Thunder. To keep it from turning into a novel, I limited my list to only the top 3 reasons.

As a born and raised Oklahoman, I love all things Oklahoma (for the most part). So naturally, I love the Thunder. On that glorious day in July, Oklahoma entered into the world of professional basketball and I finally had a reason to be a fan of an NBA team.

Honestly, I think it’s awesome to be a fan of a team from their start. While the Thunder technically existed as the Sonics before they moved to OKC, this team and this name was born in 2008 and I got to watch it happen. With the birth of this new team came the birth of my “fan-ship” and, like the team, it has been growing ever since.

From what I have seen and read about the Thunder, we are a good team on and off the court. While we are clearly a title contender and play at championship caliber, we also have players that are respectable and involved in their community. No scandals about our players being accused of sexual assault or punching fans during a game. Instead, Thunder players make the news for investing in local kids and hosting events that benefit local scholarship funds. This is the kind of team that I can proudly stand behind.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

For the last few months, I have been contemplating the idea of starting a blog (obviously, I decided to go with it since here I am). I spent time reading other people’s blogs to get some ideas on what to write about. And what did I find? That there are literally blogs about everything. Religion, politics, crafts, babies, houses. You name it, somebody is blogging about it. So here I am, joining the already crowded blogging community.

So what’s this blog about?

Simply put, this is a blog about my life and how it's about to flip upside down. Graduation is coming up in a week, I’m getting married in September, I’m moving in June, I am doing marketing and design for a new non-profit in Norman, and I’ll be looking for a job starting in August. WHOA.

This summer’s schedule is looking to be the craziest time of my life and I couldn't be more excited about all the adventures coming my way.

Real world, I hope you're ready, because in 8 days I will be a grown-up ... or at least that's what I'm told.